Waiting on the World to Change
a homily based on Luke 2:6-12
by Rev. Frank Schaefer
  

Luke 2:6-12 (the Message, Eugene Peterson):

 6-7While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

 8-12There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."

Waiting for Christmas.  I remember Advent during my childhood days as a big long waiting period.  Throughout December, it seemed to me, we were just waiting for Christmas.”  Waiting is a hard thing to do—especially when you’re a child.  Waiting has this strange dynamic.  The more you wait the longer time will stretch. It’s like when you’re eyes are glued to the clock, time just won’t pass.

         Waiting is not one of our cultural virtues either.  On the contrary, our culture teaches us to get what we want and to get it now.  No money? No problem. Charge it.  Who saves up for something they want anymore?” We nuke our food, stop at fast-food restaurants, and zip through drive-through windows. Just the other week, I found myself picking up a value meal at one of those fast-food places, trying to eat while driving, steering the car with my knees.

Yakov Smirnoff (1) made the point well. He is a Russian comedian, who emigrated to the United States. He said he wasn't prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. He says, "On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk--you just add water, and you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange juice--you just add water, and you get orange juice. And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, What a country!"

Truth is, in our culture today, there is just no space for the virtue of waiting.  Yet, according to Christian teaching, there are benefits to waiting. We often we miss something good, because we didn't  show patience. Nutritionists, for instance, tell us that getting food fast is actually not good for our health.  The process of waiting for food includes sitting down at a table, studying the menu, smelling the scent of food being prepared and to whet our appetite with water and bread or appetizers.  All this helps our bodies to get ready for food by priming our digestive processes.  Getting a burger handed through the car window will cause our bodies to say: "where did this come from?" I wasn't ready for this."

It seems to me that our world needs to rediscover the art of waiting patiently. Even we as Christians need to understand that there are benefits to waiting.  Waiting provides opportunities for preparation. Can you imagine if we skipped Lent and passion week, including Good Friday and just fast-forwarded to Easter Sunday?

Jesuit William F. Lynch (2) suggested that there are two kinds of waiting. One kind waits because "there is nothing else to do." The world is waiting in this way; the world seems to wait for God to make a move. All the while people go along with their daily tasks while worrying about what the future will bring. It is a hopeless place where we find a lot of despair, helplessness, and confusion.

The words of a song which became popular in 2008 entitled "Waiting on the World to Change express this kind of passive waiting. The lyrics go like this:
 
...it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change (3)
 

 It's like throwing up your arms and saying, everything's so corrupt that we just have to wait for the tide to turn. "We keep on waiting for the world to change."  It almost sounds like an appeal to a higher source, a prayer to God for help.

My question is: what if the answer to that prayer does not just lie in the future? I suspect God did already answer it in part! Why else would the angel have announced to the shepherds:
" I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master." (Luke 2: 10-11).

The Savior has already come and God's peace and goodwill has already been declared to the world. So instead of passively looking toward the future, is there a different way in which we can wait?

Fortunately, there is another kind of waiting according to William Lynch, and this waiting  is based on expectation.. It's an active waiting. John Mayer's song lyrics would have to be re-written to "Watching our World to Change" in this version of waiting. This kind of waiting is like getting ready for a very special guest who is already en route to our house. The house needs to be cleaned, food needs to be prepared, things need to be gotten into order. Because what we're waiting for is immanent, in fact, it's already here in part.

One of my favorite Christmas carols expresses this expectant waiting so well. "O Holy Night" was written by French poet Placide Cappeau who penned these words in 1847 (4):

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
 

These words are amazing in light of the fact that they anticipated the French abolition of slavery by one year and the American Emancipation Declaration by almost 16 years (the American Civil War took place between 1861-1865).  And that's just it: Cappeau had that expectant kind of waiting. When he looked at the world, he saw God actively working in it toward the full realization of God's kingdom.

And he clearly saw the beginning of God's Kingdom in the birth of Christ:

It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

It is the night of the dear Savior's birth that will lead to the break of a new and glorious morn in the near future and in the meantime, God's Spirit is working among us toward the remaking of the world.  God's kingdom of peace and justice cannot be stopped!  God is not going to stop reforming this world until all of his children are treated with respect; until all of God's creatures are afforded the same rights, freedoms and opportunities. Until there is no more war, no more hunger, and no more oppression.

Not everybody who looks at the baby in the manger sees the magnitude of what Cappeau saw.  To some it's just a baby born in unfortunate circumstances. To some Jesus was a good man, but his death was the end.

As every year, God is inviting the world to look at the birth of Christ through the eyes of faith.  God is daring the world once again to look, really look and see the miracle and the hope, much like Cappeau looked around and saw God's plan unfold in the world. We all have a choice as we wait--we can sit back and be passive, or we can open our eyes of faith and do our part in preparing the way for the Lord Jesus. Peace on earth and goodwill to all.  Merry Christmas!

 

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(1) "What a Country" comedy act by Yakov Smirnoff,

(2) "Images of Hope: Imagination as Healer of the Hopeless'' William F. Lynch, 1966

(3) "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer

(4) "O Holy Night" music by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, Chrétiens" by Placide Cappeau